To:P. B. AXELROD

Published:First published in 1925.

      Sent from Munich to Zurich.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1974,

      Moscow,Volume 34,

      pages58-59.Translated:Clemens DuttTranscription\Markup:D. MorosPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2005).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

March 20, 1901

Ihave received all your letters and have given Auntie
news of her old
friend.[1]There was no need for you to worry
about addresses and to think that there had been any change.
I am still living at the same place and you should write
to me at the old address:

HerrnGeorg Rittmeyer, Kaiserstrasse 53/0, M/"unchen.Inside:für Meyer.

Iam not expecting my wife for some time yet: her term
of exile only ends on Sunday, and she has to make some
calls on the way, so she can hardly be here before the
second half of April. Even when she does come you can still
write to
Rittmeyer,[2]for he will always forward
everything to me, and I in turn will let you know in good time
of any change of address.

Weare having trouble withZarya. That capricious  -3 gentleman
Dietz[3]definitely rejected your editorial article;
he was frightened by the references toIskra, scented a
whiff of “groups”, etc., and referred to the fact that both
Bebel and Singer (shareholders in hisG.m.b.H.) are rather
afraid,[4]and so on. To our very great regret, we had to
give up your article, replacing it by a few words “to the
readers”. This new censorship is horribly unpleasant! The
cover, too, has suffered: they deleted even “several
Russian Social-Democrats”. When shall we get rid of the
“tutelage” of theseDreck-Genossen?!

Weare having unpleasantness with that Calf (Judas)
too. A very angry letter has come from his friend (=the
proposed source of money=goldene
Wanze[5]), saying: I amsending 200 (two hundred!) rublesfor Sovremennoye
Obozrentye, and bear in mind, he says, that it is for this
enterprise andnotfor yours. We are all indignant, and it has
been decided: 1) not to publish the statement about the
coalition, 2) to send the Calf and his “friend” anultimatum:either firm financing ofourenterprise or we refuse, 3) to
finish the Witte
memorandum.[6]

Well,haven’t we been fooled again by Judas?

Thereis one consolation: No. 2 ofIskrahas reached
Russia safely. It is a success and letters are pouring in. The
devil knows what is happening in Russia: demonstrations
in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kharkov, Kazan; martial law
in Moscow (by the way, they arrested my youngest sister
there and even my
brother-in-law,[7]who had never taken
part in anything!); bloody battles; prisons crammed full,
and so on.

Ina few days we are expecting
Brother[8]and our
common
friend—Feld[9]—who have already left (at last!); the
latter (so far) has safely fulfilled everything required of
him.

Weare publishing a May-Day
leaflet,[10]and then we
shall start on No. 3 ofIskra, and perhaps also No. 4 at the
same time—there is a lot of material.

Zaryawill come out on Saturday, they say, and will
be sent to you directly from Stuttgart.

Ourfinances are in averybad way. Hencefor the time
beingwe must definitely refrain from all expenditure on
inviting a man out (proposed by you as a carrier).

Allthe  very   best.Yours,Meyer

[1]Thereference is to Dobrogeanu-Gherea (Kats, K. A.) (1855-1920)—leader of
the opportunist wing of the Rumanian Social-Democrats. p. 58

[2]Rittmeyer,G.—a Munich Social-Democrat at whose place Lenin lived
in 1900-01 under the name of Meyer. Letters to Lenin were sent to his address
from December 1900 to the end of July 1901. p. 58

[3]Dietz—owner of a Stuttgart printing-house at whichZarya,
the Marxist scientific and political journal, was printed.

G.m.b.H.—Gesellschaftmit beschränkter Haftung.p. 58

[4]Thisrefers to an article of Axelrod’s intended as an editorial for the
first issue ofZarya. In the phrase that was to appear on the cover of
the journal “Published in close co-operation with G. V. Plekhanov,
V. I. Zasulich, P. B. Axelrod and several Russian Social-Democrats”, Dietz
crossed out the last five words. p. 58

[5]Thisrefers to D. Zhukovksy, a publisher of books on philosophy. p. 55

[6]Thesecret memorandum of tsarist minister S. Y. Witte under the heading
“The Autocracy and the Zemstvo”, with a preface by P. B. Struve
(using the pseudonym R.N.S.), was published illegally byZaryain
1901. Both the memorandum and the preface were sharply criticised by Lenin
in his article “The Persecutors of the Zemstvo and the Hannibals of
Liberalism” (See Vol. 5 of this edition). p. 59

[7]Referringto Maria Ulyanova, and M. T. Yelizarov. p. 59

[8]Thisrefers to Y. O. Martov. p. 59

[9]Thepseudonym ofBlumenfeld, Yosif Solomonovich(born
1865)—a Social-Democrat, active member of the Emancipation of Labour
group, later a member of theIskraorganization, by trade a
compositor. In the E. L. group andIskrawas in charge of printing
and shipping arrangements. In March 1902 was arrested with a parcel ofIskrapublications and imprisoned in a Kiev jail, whence he
escaped abroad in August 1902. After the split at the Second Congress of
the R.S.D.L.P. he joined the Mensheviks. In December 1903 became secretary
of the editorial board of the MenshevikIskraand subsequently
worked in the Menshevik organizations in Russian and abroad. p. 59

[10]Thisrefers to theIskraleaflet “First of May” issued
in April 1901. p. 59